Hockenheim, FP2: Leclerc tops FP2 in Germany as Gasly crashes out

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc went quickest in the second practice session ahead of the German Grand Prix, but Pierre Gasly’s session ended early when the Red Bull driver crashed out in the final corner, heavily damaging his RB15.

Leclerc, who was second quickest in the morning behind team-mate Sebastian Vettel, took over at the top in the afternoon, setting a best time of 1:13.449 during his performance run on soft tyres. That lap put him 0.124s ahead of Vettel, with Mercedes Lewis Hamilton Mercedes third and 0.146s behind the younger Ferrari driver.

Following the qualifying simulations, the session was red-flagged with 16 minutes left on the clock when Gasly lost control in the final corner. The Frenchman lost the rear of his RB15 on entry and slid off through the gravel trap on the outside of the corner. He hit the barriers hard with the front left of his car and on the rebound slapped the rear left side into the wall too.

Gasly had earlier struggled on his soft tyres run and so finished the session in a relatively lowly 15thplace, almost a second behind team-mate Max Verstappen.

In the opening exchanges of the session, Ferrari carried on where they had left off in the morning session, with Leclerc, running hard tyres, and Vettel, on mediums, set the pace. Both Hamilton and teram-mate Valtteri Bottas then dislodged the Ferrari duo, but eventually, with around a third of the session gone, Vettel bolted on a set of soft tyres and set a new benchmark of 1:13.573 that was soon passed by Leclerc who edged a little over a tenth ahead.

Hamilton went closes to eclipsing the Ferraris, his soft run getting to within 1500ths of a second of Leclerc, but Bottas ended the session further back, with the Finn’s soft run yielding a time of 1:14.111, 0.662 adrift of Leclerc.

Fifth place on the timesheet went to Verstappen, with the Red Bull driver putting in a best time of 1:14.133 to finish just two hundredths of a second behind Bottas.

Haas’ Romain Grosjean continued to show well for Haas, with the French driver a little under five hundredths of a second behind Verstappen. The last within a second of Leclerc’s benchmark was Racing Point’s seventh-placed Lance Stroll, with the Canadian 0.819 behind Leclerc.

Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Räikkönen took P8 1.009 behind the Monegasque pacesetter, with Nico Hulkenberg 0.14s behind in ninth. The top ten was rounded out by Sergio Pérez in the second Racing Point. Mexican finished the day 1.069 off the pace.